On the occasion of the tercentenary of Calcutta, an exhibition titled Nari was mounted at the Victoria Memorial. It was a tribute to the Woman of Calcutta. 1690-1990.
Associated with the exhibition, contributing books, materials, information on the women of Calcutta during this period.
Naari. This word covers all the women of Calcutta.—women of the past three hundred years and of the present; the privileged and the less fortunate. The Calcutta Naari came from across the seas and graced the city as the Portuguese benefactress, the Armenian beauty, the Jewish matron and the British memsahib. She was part of the city's social life as the golden-voiced baiji, the respectable bhadramahila and the deprived widow. She broke through centuries of tradition and emerged as the devotee of learning, the social reformer, the political activist, the revolutionary and the woman of letters. She contributed to the city's culture as the stage actress, the cinema star, the classical dancer, the painter and the circus performer. Today the city sees her running its homes, its offices, its schools. She helps the poor and she is the poor. She is our Naari.
